Debunking the myth that green taxes are a front for raising Government tax takes

By Emma Burnell

Anyone who’s ever read a comment thread after any article anywhere on the web will recognise a few usual tired lines that are trotted out by the deniers time and again, however often they have been thoroughly debunked. Ed Miliband took on some of the most obvious ones before leaving for Copenhagen.

Another line consistently trotted out is the idea that climate change is a front for raising the Government tax take.

So let’s be very clear: If green taxes increase the overall tax take over time they will have failed.

Green taxes are about shifting the burden of taxation from goods to bads, and encouraging behaviour change by making the right environmental choice the right financial choice too. Putting a high price on carbon is unequivocally not about raising more money. It’s about creating less carbon. If the money raised goes up, that will indicate that we are not reducing carbon, and that is the primary purpose of the tool of this form of taxation.

Like all taxes on social bads – for example alcohol and tobacco – the taxes taken under carbon reduction schemes will also help to pay for the essential measures needed to mitigate the worst of the damage and to adapt to the damage that is being caused. In the case of tobacco this money goes to education, counselling and the health service. With climate change, it will go to great programmes like CESP, to building flood defences and to investing in low carbon alternatives.

I am not going to claim that there will never be a year in which the tax take from green taxes is not higher than it might otherwise have been. A particularly cold winter, a spurt of economic growth as we come out of recession, these things happening near the beginning of any tax regime, could cause anomalies, but overall, for these taxes to be successful the take must go down.

So next time a denier tells you that it’s all about raising your taxes, consider whether it’s actually about their unwillingness to behave in a socially responsible way. Or pay for the damage they are doing to you and your planet.